Hero

I had a home, a beautiful wife, a wooden front porch swing where we could sit at night
I could look down my drive and on through the street
See the ballpark fields with the kids in Little League

I could drift then away through my formative years
Where my father’s strong worn hands would suddenly seem near
I would fight with the shame of what he would have done
Had they taken all those lives when he was twenty-one?

I knew right away
I knew I couldn’t stay
I knew things had to change
Don’t ask me, I can’t explain

Don’t call me a hero, don’t you dare
I may have come home, but my soul is still there
With the blood of my brothers that God did not spare
We tried to heal your world

I left my home. I left my wife by my front porch swing where we said goodbye
With my child still inside her, three months to be born
The salt of all her sadness stained my uniform

I went then to stay in a far-away land
Where every little freedom that I’d taken for granted
Made me ashamed of how much I’d ignored
Never comprehending what we were fighting for

I knew right away
I knew I couldn’t stay
I knew things had to change
Don’t ask me, I can’t explain

Don’t call me a hero, don’t you dare
I may have come home, but my soul is still there
With the blood of my brothers that God did not spare
We tried to heal your world

We tried to heal it. We tried to heal it

I knew right away
I knew I couldn’t stay
I knew things had to change
Don’t ask me, I can’t explain

Don’t call me a hero, don’t you dare
Don’t call me a hero

Don’t call me a hero, don’t you dare
I may have come home, but my soul is still there
With the blood of my brothers that God did not spare
We tried to heal your world